Newsletter

Televisions for inmates on agenda

While they can’t enjoy the latest episode of HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” residents of the Chatham County Detention Center can still get some cooking tips from Rachael Ray.

Chatham County commissioners today will consider spending about $18,000 on 34 televisions for jail inmates.

The 50-inch LCD televisions will be set up in the common area of three new holding units built as part of the ongoing jail expansion project.

Chief Deputy Roy Harris said television is used as a management tool that helps keep deputies safe. If an inmate acts up, the privilege can be taken away, Harris said. Books are distributed to inmates for the same purpose.

“Idle time isn’t good time for us,” Harris said.

Viewing is restricted to certain channels available on basic cable — a service that inmates pay for, Harris said.

Best Buy submitted the lowest of eight bids to provide the televisions, which will be funded using dedicated sales tax revenue for the jail expansion.

The purchase is a small one compared to the $71 million construction contract for the jail expansion, although the expense is one of a number of less costly purchases the commission has approved since construction began about two years ago.

Commissioners will also consider spending almost $26,000 to buy plumbing valves and about $13,500 for four video visitation units for attorneys to use at the new housing towers.

Those items would also be paid for using the dedicated sales tax account, while other items on the agenda — floor burnishers and an edge scrubber — would be paid for using about $52,000 from the county’s general fund.

The true cost of the expanded operation has yet to come, however. The project will add almost 400,000 square feet to the facility and almost double the number of inmate beds to 2,360.

Sheriff Al St Lawrence is recommending an additional 94 positions at a yearly cost of about $7.4 million — what he says is the minimal amount needed to safely open the new housing units and move inmates from overcrowded cells.

To mitigate the cost, St Lawrence recently worked out an agreement with the U.S. Marshals Service to house federal prisoners for $70 a day, which he anticipates will generate about $1 million a year. To transport the federal inmates to federal court and medical facilities, he is requesting that commissioners approve spending an additional $176,730 annually for three more officers.

In related news, the sheriff’s department recently received a $300,000 grant from the state Criminal Justice Coordinating Council for the K-9 unit, as well as a $12,000 grant from the Georgia Emergency Management Agency to purchase a trained canine.

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP BUTLER, Okinawa, Japan — Marine Corps Captain James E. Frederick, who ejected from a Marine F/A-18 on Dec. 7, was pronounced dead after his body was found during search and rescue operations.